Dear Diary,

I have no clue how the next month of my life is going to play out.

Everything is finally falling into place, but with this whole day of unity thing, I'm not sure how long it's going to last.

So Emperor Belos announced at the Coven Day parade yesterday that the Day of Unity was going to happen in a month (well, less than a month now), and that it's going to "perfect the coven system as the Titan intended," whatever that means. He said that we're all going to the head of the Isles, and that the "worthy" will inherit a utopia, one free of wild magic.

Who determines worth? Is it Belos or the Titan? Either way, I know there are going to be quite a few excluded from it. But why would the Titan create something that isn't right? I mean, he created us, and before Belos there was wild magic. Was it meant to be fixed, or was it brutally taken away from us?

All I know is that I can't lose Eda, and I definitely can't bear the thought of losing my girlfriend either.

Speaking of her, we started out on some weird terms yesterday. At least, I thought we did. Maybe I'm just reading into things wrong.

So we're at school, and I pop up behind her, scaring the crap out of her. I decided to swoop in with some of the human language from the book that Gus gave me. Apparently, a "batata" is a sweet potato, something I have also never heard of. Why is the human realm's language so confusing?

Anyways, I asked her about the Titan Blood that I managed to snag from Eclipse Lake, and Gus and Willow asked her about the door she was planning to build to visit her mom. She seemed like she had to come up with an answer, but said that she hadn't yet, and was waiting for the perfect time. I found that weird, because I know that getting home is one of Luz's main goals, aside from being a witch.

Also, if I had a mom as great as Luz's, at least based onthe stories she told me about her, I'd do everything to get back to her too.

A little too conveniently, Luz had to leave, sending me into shock with a goodbye smooch on the cheek before she did. When I eventually came back to real life, I realized that she had left her little picture boxwith us. I noticed a video loaded up, with her smiling and in the middle of the wave. I quickly grabbed it with neither Gus nor Willow noticing. We talked for a little bit together before we parted ways, saying that we'd see each other again after the weekend.

When I got home, I arrived at a normally empty house, and went up to my room. I sat on my bed and stared at the device in my hands. I knew the power I held with it, and the knowledge it could give to me. But, I knew that it held some sort of privacy, kind of like how my scroll is my mobile diary,

Not that it could ever replace you, diary. You've been here since the beginning, nothing will ever make me get rid of you.

So, I was left with an important decision: do I look throughLuz's video box?

Honestly, a huge part of me wanted to. I wanted to see into her mind, and I really wanted to see her progress on the portal door. I assumed she would be documenting it, she usually likes taking pictures and videos of anything she doesn't have back home.

But, I knew that doing so would be like going into her mindscape without her knowing. It would be a major way to break her trust, something that I very recently gained. I wouldn't want her doing that to me, and I wouldn't want to seem like I'm getting her back for the time that she accidentally gave the twins my diary.

So, I decided to go ask someone for some advice. Someone who is just as close to Luz as I am, if not more.

When I knocked on Willow's front door, her papa was surprised to see me. He knows that we're doing better now, but he said that it has been forever since I came over to see them. I had to agree, and I asked if Willow was home. He said she was, and he sent me up to her room after asking me if I remembered where it was. I told him I knew it like the back of my hand, which was true. Even if it's been years since we last played dollies and read our favorite books up in her room, the way upstairs was still ingrained in me like muscle memory.

When I knocked on her door, she looked shocked to see me after recognizing who interrupted her workout, a totally valid reaction. I could barely look her in the eye when I was starting to talk to her, and I felt so awkward doing it. She asked me if I was okay, and it was like a dam had broken. I started rambling about how weird Luz was acting and how I thought that she was lying about her trip and how I felt like I was going crazy about all this. I ended up collapsing into her bed and letting out a giant scream before calming down enough to thoroughly explain everything to her. I asked her if she would watch the video, and she gave me a half-hearted shrug before ominously saying that she'd give me advice if I braided her hair. I told her that I'd be a little rusty, but that I was glad to be able to do it for her. We ended up talking for a little while, and she told me to follow my heart. She told me that I knew what would be the right thing to do in the end, and I had to agree.

A while after finishing her hair, I left for the parade, and asked if she and Gus wanted to go with me. She said they were planning on watching from home to avoid the crowd, and they invited me to join. I told her that I had to go in-person make sure Luz didn't do anything stupid, as she texted me that she was helping Eda do something at the parade when I had asked her to come with me.

I'm so happy that I have a confidant in her again. While I would never want to keep a drastic secret from Luz, I'm just glad that I have someone who I can go to when I need advice but can't talk to her directly about it.

The parade started, but soon after, I had to go after Luz. I could tell that the chaos in the middle was due to her and Eda, and of course I heard her yelling something from the third Azura book at some point. I could barely see her through the smoke bombs they conjured, but I heard her footsteps run down an alley, so I quickly followed her. I made sure to stay a short distance behind her, as I didn't know what we would run into. When she finally reappeared, I saw she was with Kikimora, and hidingout from the head of the plant coven. I noticed an attack launched their way, so I summoned a small abomination to take care of it while I ran to get her and Kikimora out of the alley. Luz was so happy to see me, but my only focus was making sure she didn't get sent to the conformatorium... again. So, I conjured up a skateboard (Luz has been teaching me to ride one), and got us out of there quickly.

Luz told me to head to the dock at the edge of town so that Kikimora could go to her family reunion. When we got there, Luz helped her onto a hand dragon that was waiting at the end of the dock for them, and started saying something about her being proof about not having to choose between worlds. I was quite suspicious of that, all until Kikimora snapped on us. She said that she could care less about her family, and that she would rather be able to get Belos some gifts. She recognized me from Eclipse Lake, but that didn't throw me off. We instantly got ready for whatever she threw at us, and she decided to throw it down hard.

She commanded the hand dragon to squish us, but we were able to run towards the other end of the dock, shooting up a cloud of mist and icy abomination gauntlets in an effort to knock her off the beast. Kikimora was able to block our path off the dock, and we were about to send another attack onto her when both her and the dragon were bound by long blades of grass. I thought it was Willow somehow knowing we were in trouble until I heardTerra's voice emerging from the water. She started talking about the Emperor's plans, and how hurting us wasn't part of them, and how Kikimora was actually going to get her promotion, which was just her keeping her life.

After sending Kikimora back to the parade, Terra turned to us and said that the Emperor was waiting to meet Luz again, and wished us a happy coven day before heading back herself.

I was about to ask Luz what Terra meant, but she instantly threw herself onto me for a hug, elated that I was able to save her. She asked me what I could do to make it up to her, and I asked her if she could tell me what was in the video. She gave me this terrified look, and I let her know that I didn't watch it, but knew that she did make the portal and saw her mom, and that I knew something didn't go well for her.

She apologized, but it seemed like she didn't want to admit anything, and wasn't trying to outright keep anything from me either. She told me that I looked so hopeful that everything went well for her, and she was proud of me trying to learn Spanish to impress her mom, and that maybe helping Kikimora could show that there's some kind of hope that she could live both lives that she wanted to.

I told her that I was fine taking things one day at a time, and that I couldn't help if I didn't know what was troubling her. She decided to tell me everything that happened, and that she had to rescue a basilisk from a creepy witch hunter wanna be, and that she screwed up when telling her mom about her time in the Boiling Isles, having to promise that she would stay in the human realm when she eventually returned. I told her that whatever her choice was, I would be behind her 100%, even if my heart disagreed with my brain. We eventually found Eda hiding out in an alcove near the dock, and we flew back to the parade, opting to watch what was left of it from a nearby rooftop. That's when Belos made his announcement, and the rest is history.

Well wait, he finally showed his face, and there was this disgusting scar running around the side of it. So, that was something. I was too busy trying not to bury my face in Luz's shoulder and cry out of scaredness, so we hugged until the coast was clear enough for all of us to leave.

When I got home, I heard mom talking on the phone cheerfully about something. I couldn't pick out what, but whatever it was, she seemed pretty happy about it. It's almost as if she somehow didn't see the message that Belos sent to the entire Isles. I decided not to pick a fight with her over it, so I headed to talk to the twins about how we're feeling about this.

Diary, it finally feels like my life is getting itself together. I have friends who actually like and support me, my siblings by my side, a girlfriend who I'd go to the moon and back for, and a sense of self outside of my parents.

When we were up on the roof and trying to understand Belo's decree, all I could do was bombard Luz with what felt like a million questions. I wanted to know if Belos was planning something and wanted to know why he wanted to see her again if they had already met, and what else I didn't know about him. I didn't get to ask her this, but I also wanted to know why a coven head would spare Luz knowing that she's regarded by the Emperor's Coven as public enemy #2 at this point. Isn't it Terra's job to enforce the emperor's will? Or was he waiting to do something much worse to her?

I don't even want the answer to that question.

Titan, do you hate me or something? I know I've done a lot of bad things, but is there any way that I can redeem myself? Please send me a sign to let me know.

For now, I'll just have to take things one day at a time.

More trepidatious than I've had to be in a while,
Amity